2005 Senate Bill text for SB1003

SENATE BILL 1003

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2005

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald P. Ortiz y Pino

AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS; CREATING A PUBLIC SCHOOL-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PILOT PROJECT; PROVIDING FOR EVALUATION; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

Section 1. A new section of the Public School Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] PUBLIC SCHOOL-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PILOT PROJECT CREATED--COMMITTEES--DUTIES.--

A. The "Albuquerque public school-community partnership pilot project" is created as a five-year project to determine whether public school-community partnership committees with the authority to make changes in public schools will enhance the performance of students in public schools that do not meet state standards, which are designated as "corrective action schools". The pilot project shall be conducted in each corrective action school in the Albuquerque public school district.

B. A corrective action school shall establish a public school-community partnership committee selected from the corrective action school's local community. The school principal of a corrective action school shall initially determine the number of committee members, which may be changed by the committee once formed, but it shall be composed as follows:

(1) corrective action school parents and community members from the within the school's attendance boundary shall constitute at least fifty-one percent of the committee's membership and teachers and school administrators from the school shall constitute the other members;

(2) each grade level shall have a representative on the committee;

(3) the parents from each grade level may select representatives; and

(4) at least two members of the committee shall represent the community at large, selected from within the attendance boundary of the corrective action school.

C. A corrective action school's public school-community partnership committee shall:

(1) elect a chair, a vice chair and a secretary;

(2) establish an informal procedure to conduct its meetings and business;

(3) report directly to the school principal and the Albuquerque public school district's board of education;

(4) hold at least four meetings a year with parents from each grade level in the school. The committee shall ensure that parents' views are heard at all meetings;

(5) conduct at least one general combined meeting a year with the entire school community;

(6) develop, through a public dialogue process conducted with all residents who live within the attendance boundary of the school and have an interest in public school outcomes, a written school vision statement that includes goals, measurable objectives and operation plans;

(7) ensure that all demographic groups living within the attendance boundary of the school have equal representation in the public dialogue and vision process;

(8) review all school processes, including student achievement, building and grounds maintenance and parental and community involvement in the school;

(9) together with the corrective action school principal:

(a) evaluate the progress of all students in the school;

(b) find ways to improve the achievement of all students;

(d) determine how to decrease dropout rates in the school;

(10) attend mandatory training;

(11) be represented during interviews for teachers and school principals; and

(12) produce and provide an annual report to the department stating its accomplishments for each school year.

D. A school principal of a corrective action school shall:

(1) provide to the school's public school-community partnership committee a list of all teachers and their qualifications;

(2) provide the test scores of students taught by each teacher and the written goals, measurable objectives and action plans for improving the test scores of each student; provided that the information shall not identify individual students;

(3) communicate with the public school-community partnership committee, specifically with the chair, on a regular basis; and

(4) attend all public school-community partnership committee meetings.

E. The department and the Albuquerque public school district shall develop and conduct public school-community partnership committee training, which training shall be specific to the duties pursuant to this section.

F. The Albuquerque public school district's board of education shall provide the ways and means for all public school-community partnership committees to meet and share their successes and challenges.

G. The department shall evaluate the progress of the public school-community partnership pilot project through student test scores at the participating corrective action schools and by other measures deemed appropriate by the department. The department shall make periodic reports to the legislative education study committee and a final report to that committee and the legislature at the end of the pilot project. The legislative education study committee may make recommendations to the legislature at any time concerning the efficacy of the pilot project and shall make final recommendations on continuation or expansion of the program as a pilot project or general law."

Section 2. APPROPRIATION.--Nine hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($975,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the public education department for expenditure in fiscal year 2006 to conduct the Albuquerque public school-community partnership pilot project in the Albuquerque public school district. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2006 shall revert to the general fund.

Section 3. DELAYED REPEAL.--Section 1 of this act is repealed effective July 1, 2011.

Section 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2005.

- 6 -